Put the 'merit' back in Bright Futures

Editorial

THE ISSUE: Changes discussed for Bright Futures, FRAG.

The original idea of making Bright Futures a merit-based scholarship still makes sense. It's the "merit" part that stillneeds work, however.

Conceived in 1997, the scholarship was seen as a way to reward the best and brightest students, and hopefully keep them and their talents in Florida after graduation.

There are apparently no viable figures on whether those students stay in Florida — even the Florida Department of Education doesn't track where Bright Futures recipients work after college. But there can be no doubting the program has become an overly generous gift that needs to be changed.

The Florida Legislature is considering making Bright Futures more readily available to the financially needy, as well as making the Florida Resident Assistance Grant for private colleges more need-based.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board has long supported — and still does — keeping Bright Futures as a true merit-based scholarship. But to keep the program truly viable, it is time to raise the academic standards so the best and brightest are truly the ones who get the reward — as we have argued on numerous occasions before.

The Senate has proposed a $1,000 cut to Bright Futures, dropping the average award to about $1,400. The House would set the award at slightly below the present $2,400, but raise eligibility standards, which seems by far the best path for a merit-based scholarship.

The House wants to increase the minimum SAT score for a top scholarship from 1020 to 1170, and increase the ACT requirement from 22 to 26. Both seem like attainable goals for many students.

Fact is, the original Bright Futures program was a giveaway. And funded with Florida Lottery money, a program sold to Florida voters as a way to support K-12 public education, it was an unaffordable giveaway.

The FRAG program, which this past year paid $2,425 to help defray tuition costs for almost 35,000 students at 30 private, nonprofit colleges and universities in Florida, is a true lifeline for many students at those institutions. Many of these students work and/or have families, and at a price of about $85 million to the state, the cost is not prohibitive. Making this a need-based scholarship, and cutting some students back to between $500 and $2,450, could mean that many simply can't stay in school.

Creating reasonable academic guidelines to maintain the full FRAG scholarship is a better alternative.

As for Bright Futures, it shouldn't be the virtual giveaway it is today. Keep it merit-based, but make it truly for the best and brightest.